By Robert Preidt
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Feb. 11, 2020 (HealthDay Information) — Far too several teenage boys at chance for HIV an infection are analyzed for the AIDS-leading to virus in the United States, researchers say.

And this contributes to the growing epidemic of undiagnosed HIV in the country.

Close to 15{de67ab9575e0f65325df988e3a8731ef61b975ae2223cdff83ba315b2ed86bd4} of HIV bacterial infections in the United States are undiagnosed, but the undiagnosed fee is extra than three.five situations greater (fifty one{de67ab9575e0f65325df988e3a8731ef61b975ae2223cdff83ba315b2ed86bd4}) amongst thirteen- to 24-calendar year-olds, according to the research authors.

“Doctors — pediatricians in particular — will need to be owning extra frank and open discussions with their male teenage clients,” said research co-creator Brian Mustanski. He’s director of the Northwestern University School of Drugs Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Well being and Wellbeing.

“If parents question their teen’s provider to discuss about sexual health and testing, this may perhaps be sufficient to start out that critical dialogue in the exam home, foremost to an HIV exam,” Mustanski said in a university information launch.

These talks must include things like a thorough sexual record and a dialogue about sexual orientation — “preferably a private dialogue with out parents current,” he extra.

For the research, the investigators questioned nearly seven-hundred gay, bisexual and questioning male teens, aged thirteen to eighteen, if they’d at any time experienced an HIV exam. The researchers also questioned about their sexual behaviors and condom use, any HIV instruction from faculties and loved ones, sexual health conversations with medical doctors, HIV information, and attitudes about prevention and chance.

All round, less than just one in 4 experienced at any time experienced an HIV exam. Only just one-third of people who engaged in anal intercourse with out a condom — which carries a high chance of HIV transmission — said they’d been analyzed, according to the report.

Barriers to HIV testing amongst this high-chance group of teen boys include things like getting unaware that they can lawfully consent to an HIV exam, not recognizing exactly where to get analyzed and fears of getting outed, the research authors said.

Factors that increase the probability of testing include things like speaking with parents about intercourse and HIV prevention, recognizing simple points about HIV, experience that testing is critical and experience empowered to do it.

The research was revealed on the web Feb. 11 in the journal Pediatrics.

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Source: Northwestern University, information launch, Feb. 11, 2020



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